The day so far has been eventful to say the least. Someone that I don’t know buzzed me up this morning to alert me to a dissing; and under normal circumstances I would not pay it any mind. But this kinda reminds me of some of the reviews that I used to get for my artwork. I love it when people speak their minds. And have made a career out of speaking mine. So a good old fashioned thrashing is par for the course. My art dealer used to love nasty reviews. Brought folks into the gallery in droves. wondering what all the fuss was about. And the reference to paint thinner, not bad, not bad at all. The label is meant to tie in the links between my thirty year career in the arts and my work as a perfumer. The primary colors, the hard edges, bold graphics. That is what I do. If you like it you like it, if you don’t you don’t. That is the way of the world. Everyone has an opinion. When we were testing out new designs and packaging ideas (mostly on the customers who visit our boutique) this new design was well received, as well as the name for the Man Spray. We get a cross section of people from all walks of life, so to single out any particular group would not be possible. I trust the people who actually know and use our products, and they (for the most part) made this call, and I/we stand by it. We are working with some interesting folks right now to create an exhibition that pairs conceptualism in visual art to conceptualism in scent art. There’s really more to it than just the fluff of label design, or who gets the bigger market share, and all of the commerce relates aspects to perfumery, including marketing and hype. I know that if I personally made perfume purchases according to labeling and packaging, their might be two bottles on my dresser, maybe just one. I am a tough critic as well. So I get it. No problem.

I guess it pays to be a little thick-skinned in this business, eh? It's interesting to see that perfumers such as LZ are actually paying attention to what gets said in forums such as these. (“You are soooo busted!” )

LZ – Curious as to what that one bottle is that you'd have on your dresser if you purchased by packaging alone.

I'm in the final stages of preparing a post to my own fragrance blog and was alerted by blogarithm that Now Smell This had been updated. Being ever curious, I checked it out and was rather dismayed at some of the comments for Liz and her new fragrance launches. I believe that Liz is an honest perfumer who loves what she does with a passion. From the comments I couldn't tell that anyone had actually tried the five new fragrances. I do have samples of each of them and here is my take. Palomino is probably my favorite of the five. I do have to get past the green opening notes, but once those quiet, the spicy floral is breathtaking and works very well with my chemistry. Citrine Rose has been a formula Liz has been working on all summer and it's an authentic rose with a definite twist…that Frankincense adds mystery and depth. And actually my husband choose this as his favorite.

Constructive criticism is invaluable – it helps us not to become so ego centered in ourselves that we cant see the truth about who we are and what we've created. Liz seems to have taken these comments in stride and in fact, they will most likely pique even more interest in her new collection.

But give the gal a break! I love the name of the scent “Man Spray”, totally cool and whimisical and comical. The scent industry DOES need to lighten up and even us buying public too. Really. Just my opinion.

Us Indie perfumers can be just as good if not better than the highly visable, overrated, highly expensive, mainstream scent houses most of us love so well.

My 2 cents: I do think indie perfumers deserve something more of a break than large lines, esp. on such matters as packaging, but also, when you put your products out there in the public arena, you can't expect that everyone is going to like what you do. Having others criticize your packaging is way better than having others say your perfumes are trash, at any rate.
People are welcome to add more comments, but any more comments insulting other commenters will be deleted.

I hate censorship too. Even if it's regarding opinions. I'll stop my bombastic attack towards that fellow poster or anyone else here. I will admit to being very rude of myself here. But I have to admit to being very touchy when it comes to certain subjects such as this. I know packaging is very important in product placement/marketing and it's allure to the buying public. I am very attracted to a beatiful bottle myself just as the next person. I have a huge commercial perfume bottle collection to attest to that due to my admiration towards the art of the perfume bottle. But in the end, it's the juice inside that counts. You can have a gorgeous bottle made by Baccarat or Lalique; but if the juice smells like one of Paris Hilton's scent's, well, then you wasted your money, IMO. So there I go with my opinion and disdain towards another person's scent line. I'm no better. But at least I admit freely here. Unlike some whom won't admit to a single fault if their lives depended on it.

I think people might be shocked to hear that a lot of those designer fragrances on the market pay more for the manufacture of the packaging than the cost of the juice itself.

I couldn't care less what the packaging looks like…prime example is YSL's Rive Gauche pour Homme–plastic bottle with a fancy graphic print overlay. Fine by drugstore standards, but who cares, the juice is superb!

Robin, Robin, with the heart of a lion… This whole debacle reminds me of an unfortunate and terrifying incident that occurred a few months back in the programmer blogging commmunity. An intelligent, knowledgable, and accessible (and female) blogger was threatened physically by a bunch of less self-individuated (and, presumably, male) commenters. Law-enforcement was notified, and the FBI got involved because of the horrendous masochistic crap that was written about her. This gem-to-programmers has not posted since, because a few unethical and morally-suspect forum managers failed to do what Robin has done here; deleted deleterious comments. Now, I do not mean to imply that the situation here has reached such horrific proportions..but for God's sake! Aren't we lucky that Robin has stepped up to the plate?!? Glad to know you've got our backs, Girl!

Oh, you are kind but I'd be ashamed to be compared — that was truly horrifying, and I completely sympathized with her decision to stop blogging. Why blog to such a nasty audience?

Perfume people, I like to think, are way nicer than all that. And haven't deleted anything yet, but there are several “verging on insult” posts above and if they get any closer to the mark, I will. This place is usually very kind and well-behaved and I like to keep it that way.

But I do understand why those who have a stake in indie perfumery feel insulted. And also understand why others felt free to criticize. We have packaging/design issues criticized here quite literally on a daily basis without causing any stir, so there was not reason anyone would assume they had to be more circumspect than usual.

Honestly, my only quibbles are with the similarity to l'Artisan — I find it confusing at a glance — and the supposed evolution of a rose. “Man Spray” is a hoot, and I don't much care about the packaging. Beautiful bottles are appreciated, but a current favorite sprays from a plain plastic bottle, wears a pc-generated label, and cost about $10 (including shipping). If the juice is fine, I'll be grateful.

I did not mean to insult anyone and I do appreciate Liz’s work very much, as well as yours Mando-your frags are well done too; but bad packaging limits your market opportunity even for indie frags market; makes people sort of angry and not as willing to spend money– sort of like someone’s unsophisticated language abilities bugs some people

Actually Mando you confirmed my point by overreacting on my misspelled post, you want it pretty and grammatically correct –>“good package” and probably because of my tiresome English -> “bad package” you overlooked my comment on frags themselves

Really, I have nothing to say about LZ Artisan (except that the bottles look perfectly decent to me!) But, I have to ask, because of my illogical, stubborn refusal to haunt the MUA board, and to program etc.: who is this persecuted blogger? This sounds truly terrible, and I have a awful feeling that I know who it is. Robin, please feel free to email me if for any reason I was not to ask questions about this incident publicly.